Good to be Home

Deacon Turner

For the past three months I, your deacon, have been on sabbatical. As you might know the word and idea of sabbatical comes from the Biblical Hebrew word ‘sabbath’, literally a "ceasing" , a rest from work, or a break, often lasting from two months to a year. While I have continued to labor in my work as the psychologist in our schools, I have ceased, for a time, to function visibly as your deacon at Good Shepherd. I say visibly, because I have continued, throughout the summer to meet weekly, off campus, with our young men’s Brotherhood of the Fire. I have also made stealthy and clandestine visits to our parish to check my mail and to pray in the solitude of our sanctuary.  

Though this sabbatical was mandatory as part of the diocese guidelines for deacons when a new rector comes to a parish, I endeavored to use the time to reflect, by comparison, on our unique Episcopal form of worship. 

Each Sunday, during the past three months, I visited a different Christian denomination within our communities. The diversity was radically broad, the sense of welcome was warm and universal, and the presence of God was constant. 

After living forty years in our community, and helping raise and teach thousands of children, it came as no surprise that I knew someone in each church. While I generally attempted to be inconspicuous in my visits, sitting in the back, limiting my conversation, etc., inevitably I would be gathered under someone’s wing and introduced to the worshipers gathered. I was asked to sing, to pray, to lay hands upon, and to come again. The warmth and welcome was real and heartfelt. I declined the solo singing, prayed a reluctant dismissal blessing, and held my hands out in healing prayer. 

Baptist, Methodist, Church of God, Anglican, Episcopal, non-denominational, Roman Catholic, Missionary Baptist, Church of Christ, and Camp Henry worship. 

I witnessed ecstatic prayer and resting in the Spirit, Biblical scholarship and study, two hour sermons, five minute sermons, fine completely acapella singing, a deep sense of community, and no matter which form of worship, a powerful blessing to God. 

We are blessed to live in a unique corner of the world where our God is honored, proclaimed, and worshiped by many people. Sure there are many people in our community who do not worship, do not know Jesus, and to whom we need to reach out and invite to worship with us. But it is good to know that there is a pervasive holiness here in our mountains where all are welcome. 

I am so very glad to be home now. Warmed by the return welcome that I have received from so many of you. So very grateful to be working with Fr. Bill and back to serving in our wonderful church. I am grateful for what I have experienced during this sabbatical …….but……there is no place like home. 

Under His Wing, 

Deacon Turner

Welcoming Church, Inviting Church

May God put on your lips the words “Follow me.” 

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Father Bill

“Follow me.” Simple words spoken by Jesus to a number of people in scripture. Tax collector, fishermen and those who would be fishers of men, someone whose father had died, and likely many more not recorded in the Gospel narratives. To all who would be his sheep - to the good, the bad, and the ugly - he said, “Follow me.” They are his words of invitation into a new life, and they should be ours also.

I have been impressed by the enthusiasm I see at Good Shepherd in our welcoming of new and returning folks. We are blessed with some fine and friendly greeters and ushers who are doing a great job on Sunday mornings making people feel welcome. There is also a real friendliness here that we extend not just to those we already know but to folks who are new. We have prepared a beautiful prayer garden for their approach, an attractive church exterior, a comfortable worship space and excellent fellowship hall for gathering after the service. Well done good and faithful servants of Good Shepherd! Well done in creating a welcoming church! 

Now I ask that you think in perhaps a subtle but significantly different way about what we are called to be as a faith community. Jesus said “Follow me.” As much as Good Shepherd is a welcoming faith community, we must also be an inviting faith community. “Follow me” must also be words that we speak. When we speak those words, they might sound like “I see that your back hurts, come to our healing service on Tuesday night and let us pray for you.” “You appear unhappy and hurt by what you have experienced in church, come to Good Shepherd and rest in God’s love for you.” “You have a real gift for gardening, we could use that gift at our church, I would like to show you our gardens.” We are richly blessed at Good Shepherd with so many possibilities for inviting people into this faith community. Think of all that we have been given to share with others. Those are all opportunities for invitation. 

Coming up next month, we have a couple of major all-parish gatherings that I ask you use as opportunities for inviting friends. First, on Saturday the 21st at 4:00 pm we are having Low County Boil. Then, on Sunday the 29th at 4:00 pm the Bishop will be with us for Confirmation and a Celebration of New Ministry with a big reception to follow. I hope that you plan to attend these fun and festive occasions, and that you invite a friend or two. May God put on your lips the words “Follow me.”

Fr Bill+ 

Reaching Across the Divide

A scene from Michelangelo’s famous painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling shows God reaching out his hand to give the gift of life to Adam. The figure of God is stretched out, body, arm and index finger extended, suggesting that God is yearning to bridge the gap between us and bless us with the gift of life. Yet, when we look at the image of Adam we see a figure relaxed and almost indifferent, reclining away from God with arm rested on knee and hand lithely offered. God yearns to bridge the gap between us, to be in contact with us, but we seem to not participate with the same yearning and we seem not to want the blessing. The outstretched hand of peace and new life is not accepted. That reluctance is too often mirrored in our relationships with each other as well. When we look around ourselves in this faith community, in our families, and the world at large, where do we see the hand of peace either not extended or not accepted? Where are the opportunities for us to again extend the hand of peace and where are the opportunities to receive the hand that has been offered?

As those who have been baptized in Christ and as those who are bearers of the Spirit of God, it is our holy calling to be people who strive to reach out to others with the offer of peace and new life. God’s yearnings are to be our yearnings. God’s leaning into those separated from Him, is to be our orientation as well. God’s hand is to be our hand. Catholic priest and spiritual writer Henri Nouwen describes the consequences of not extending the hand of peace. Those are consequences we see too often. He writes: “As long as there is distance between us and we cannot look in each other’s eyes, all sorts of false ideas and images arise. We give them names, make jokes about them, cover them with our prejudices, and avoid direct contact. We think of them as enemies. We forget that they love as we love, care for their children as we care for ours, become sick and die as we do. We forget that they are our brothers and sisters and treat them as objects that can be destroyed at will. Only when we have the courage to cross the street and look in one another’s eyes can we see there that we are children of the same God and members of the same human family."

Nouwen’s words remind us that we are called by our Lord bridge the gap that divides us and to be bridge builders for peace. Just as Jesus reached out and across the gap to those outside acceptable society ‐ the Samaritan, the leper, the demon possessed, and such ‐ we are called to reach out to others, especially those different from ourselves and those beyond the pale. To do so may be costly to our reputations and our lives, just as it was costly to Jesus.

I am grateful for all the bridges of peace that exist in this parish. Let us be prayerful and faithful in seeking new ways in which we can create new bridges so that the fullness of God’s vision of peace and new life for His people can become ever more manifest in this parish, in our lives, and in the larger world around us.

Fr Bill+ 

The Love of God

One of the many ministries through which I have been blessed is working with children. In my former parish, I worked not only with our own children and their parents, but also served as the chaplain to our parish day school. As chaplain, I would try to meet at least once a week with the children during their daily chapel service. The service was very much a liturgical service with an opening litany, the confession and then some words about God’s love for them from “Father Bill” as they knew me, followed by song and prayers. It seemed rather easy at first to share with them the more obvious ways that we know God’s love for us, but then after a few months came the challenge when the obvious ways appeared to be exhausted. Rather than repeat what has already been said, how would I first discover for myself new ways that God loves us and then how would I share that with these very young people? It was a growth experience for me, and perhaps also for them. In the end, I may have received more spiritually from this experience than they did, and I would not be surprised if that is what God intended when he led me to serve as chaplain to a day school so far from my southern home. He opened my eyes and stretched me to see his love for me and others and gave me words and the opportunity to share that with his littlest lambs. What a blessing!

Our ministry as the parish of the Good Shepherd is not different. As individuals and as one body ‐ a parish, a diocese, a church ‐ we are called to share the good news of the Gospel with the whole world. That good news is God’s love for all people and all creation. To that end, we will work to discover daily the love that God has for us in ways that are known and ways that surprise, challenge, and shape us to be more than we imagine we could ever be. We will seek out and experience God’s love in times of joy and times of great sadness. We will seek out and experience God’s love in fellowship with those who are very much like us and with those who are very different. We will continue to be a welcoming church with faith in a God bigger than our theological and socially constructed differences. We will continue to gather for worship and fellowship, sharing the good news of what God is doing and being fed by word and sacrament, so that we may be sent out as servants to a world that is hurting and in need of the good news. Let us commit ourselves to constant prayer, that the eyes of our hearts be open to seeing in both ways old and new the love of God and ways that we can share that love with others. May God continue to bless you, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church, and our Episcopal Church as we seek to be a blessing to others.

Fr Bill+

Greetings from Fr. Bill!

Grace to you and peace to all the saints of Good Shepherd. We are blessed and so grateful that we will soon be joining you. I know that you have received some information about me and my family from the Discernment Committee, yet I hope that all of you will spend some time with us as we get to know each other over the coming months. One helpful way of starting this conversation is to look for what we have in common. Toward that, here is some of who we are that may connect with you.

I was born in Heidelberg, Germany and grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Yes, a military family. I am a former Roman Catholic who was introduced to the Episcopal Church by my wife, Susan. Our first date was actually to church at her home parish, St. John’s in Tallahassee, Florida. The Baptist church was an important part of my life when I was a preteen. I am a fan of Jesus and the church, and college sports, especially SEC football and ACC basketball. I enjoy music and movies, hope to get back into golf and playing guitar, and have friends and family of all kinds from super‐conservative to ultra‐liberal, gay and straight, white and Hispanic, Asian and African‐American.

Susan is a Florida native and cradle Episcopalian. She is an avid reader, enjoys her many craft, and loves to play games and solve puzzles. Susan is Dr. Doolittle, Donna Reed and Mary Poppins in one person. Animals love her and she makes life magical around our home. She is an awesome host and enjoys cooking and throwing parties. Susan is the math genius of the family and uses her statistics training in her work in fraud detection for Peoples Bank. If she decides to finish her dissertation, Susan would have her PhD in sociology.

Talley will be a freshman this fall at Appalachian State University. She has been active in church, regularly attending camp and serving on the staff at Happening and the Diocese of Kansas convention, participating in several mission trips, leading an annual Parent’s Day Out event, and working in the church nursery. Talley sings in a couple of her high school’s choirs and also enjoys music and reading. She speaks Chinese and German, has been to China once and Germany three times, and has recently returned from a three-month stay in southern France where she worked as an au pair. Talley will be going to Honduras this summer.

Mary will be a sophomore at Hayesville High School. Over the past years, Mary has played piano and flute, and now enjoys photography and writing. Mary loves literature and has become a fan of some of the classic works such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Expectations, and Pride and Prejudice. She is a fan of music and is looking forward a trip to St. Louis to see Pierce the Veil and All Time Low, and also to one last Warped Tour date before moving to Hayesville. Mary speaks French, enjoys playing board games, baking cookies, and spending time with her friends.

Adrian Gonzalez is our unofficial adopted son. He came to live with us when things did not work out in his family. Adrian is completing high school a year early and intends to enroll in a nearby college this fall. His interests are in engineering, video games and basketball, movies and music, and shares with me an interest in all things zombie. Adrian is bi‐lingual and has also taken courses in French. He has a great sense of humor and has brought much life and laughter to our family. He is also an excellent cook but watch out for those hot peppers!

Our other family members are our dogs Cookie and Piper, and our cats Duchess and Dexter. They seem to say that they too are excited about the move to Hayesville. Well, maybe not Duchess. But that is part of our story. So, where do we connect with you? I am looking forward to meeting all of you, hearing your stories, and working with everyone to share the good news of what God is doing in Western North Carolina and Northern Georgia.

Peace and love to all,

Fr Bill+